Making Lemonade
by volian
Summary: Sweet and sour drabbles centered around the girls of Kingdom Hearts. They need love too, you know. Multichaptered, miscellaneous shoujo ai pairings. [temporarily dead]
1. hover

MAKING LEMONADE  
_fanfic by volly  
kingdom hearts (c) square enix/disney_

...  
title: hover (1)  
wordcount: 254  
pairing: unknown. try to find out the characters by context. it's not too hard, i think.  
genre: spiritual, mild angst  
...

She hovers there by the beach, day after day. It's become a sort of a ritual for her to visit that Paopu tree every evening, hanging out on the boughs or sitting at the roots, just staring out at the sea. She seems cheerful enough most of the time, laughs and smiles like any other girl, but I can see past her shell, and with each passing day she's slowly breaking apart inside.

I walk up beside her. She's standing on the shore, the waves lapping at her feet, auburn hair ruffling a bit in the ocean wind. Though she gives no sign of awknowledgement, I can tell that she's aware of my prescence.

"It's not very healthy, being depressed like this." I attempt.

She sighs and wrings her hands a bit. "He promised he'd come back, but I'm honestly starting to doubt that..."

It's funny how much she's changed. He's gone, and so are the bangles on her wrists and forearms, her miniskirt, her flashy tanktop. Her emotional differences are even greater--gone is her sense of innocence and optimism and joy. Gone with him.

Of course, I'm not as carefree as I once was, either.

Tentatively I touch her shoulder, and she finally looks away from the waves to meet my gaze. She smiles faintly--I know she appreciates my efforts at understanding, but I also know I can't take his place. That's okay. I don't want to teach her to forget him, or to move on.

I just want to bring back a spark of hope, if it still exists.


	2. erase

MAKING LEMONADE  
_fanfic by volly  
kingdom hearts (c) square enix/disney_

...  
title: erase (2)  
wordcount: 135  
pairing: kairinaminè  
genre: mild angst  
notes: for your information, the previous pairing was selphiekairi. :)  
...

I can see why he holds her so dear.

The sketch is so realistic I give a start. Rich maroon hair frames a cheeky face, from which innocent azure eyes screw in a flirtacious wink and pale lips arch in a challenging grin.

So this was the girl from Destiny Islands? The girl that Sora treasured above all others? Gently I outline her with a finger, watching as the carbons smudged and blurred, tainting her otherwise pristine appearance.

This was the girl I was to replace?

"Do it," Larxene hisses from behind me. Her eyes are ice, so different from the warm tones of Kairi's, even though their hues are nearly identical. "Sora is yours. And you are ours. Do it, Naminè."

Sorry, Kairi.

I reach for the eraser, and my hands are shaking.


	3. running away

MAKING LEMONADE  
_fanfic by volly  
kingdom hearts (c) square enix/disney_

...  
title: running away (3)  
wordcount: 235  
pairing: yuffieaerith  
genre: mild angst  
notes: finally pulling myself out of present-tense first person mode. ;) oh. and i've decided. i really do like yuffieaerith.  
...

"So what happened today?" Aerith asked, brushing a palm over Yuffie's knee to cure the shallow cut that ran across the pale skin. Yuffie was quieter than normal this particular evening, which was always a cause for concern.

Yuffie didn't give a reply at first, and Aerith began to wonder if she was being ignored until the ninja finally muttered under her breath. "Lost another one to the shadows."

That explained it. She was always very moody after a casualty. Aerith hummed sympathetically. "It's not your fault."

"No?" Yuffie sighed, rubbing at her now unscathed knee, while Aerith moved onto the scraping wound on the girl's shoulder. "I can't believe that. Everytime it happens I feel like I've failed at something." she bit her lower lip. "I wish I knew what it was."

Aerith had nothing to say to that, so she focused on just healing all of Yuffie's material injuries, while wishing she could do the same to the shinobi's psychological wounds. Yuffie stood and took a breath. "You know what keeps me going? You know why I fight?" she answered her own question. "I fight so that you don't have to, Aerith."

And then she ran away. Aerith sat down heavily on the stool Yuffie had occupied just a few moments ago.

Yuffie was the only person that could make Aerith Gainsborough wish she could fight. 


	4. making lemonade

MAKING LEMONADE  
_fanfic by volly  
kingdom hearts (c) square enix/disney_

...  
title: making lemonade (2)  
wordcount: 650  
pairing: naminèaerith  
genre: mild angst  
notes: just wanted to see if i could make this work out. : takes place in chain of memories. my idea of what happened to sora'smemories!aerith after he leaves his memories of traverse town. this is a bit long.  
...

Aerith pressed the fruit firmly against the juicer. Juice seeped under her nails. Carefully she held a fingertip to her lips, licking experimentally at the liquid.

Sour. Just as expected. With a frown, she continued to grind the lemon against the juicer, watching as the yellow fluid accumulated in the belly of the extractor. With a shrug, she tossed the spent lemon into the sink and poured the homemade lemonade into a cup. With a sigh, she put the juicer away and picked up her beverage, the glass cool against her fingers.

One glass. That was all she needed, after all. It wasn't as if the others were around anymore.

Yuffie was the first to go, she recalled, settling herself on a stool in the inn, lemonade in hand. The ninja was always there, a cheerful prescence in the otherwise moody group of survivors from Hollow Bastion. But one day she had just disappeared.

It was, of course, a cause of concern. What was more alarming, if possible, was the others' reactions to her abscence. Leon had just stared blankly at her and stated simply that he knew of nobody named Yuffie. Cid had similar thoughts, and rather suspected that she was going mad.

Aerith wondered that herself. Especially when, the next day, Cid was gone as well. And the day after that, Leon vanished. She regarded her sole glass of lemonade sadly. When once she would've made four, there was just one. Just one.

Just herself.

She would be next, Aerith knew. She knew that she was always more perspective than the others. She knew that something was up, when the boy named Sora had shown up, knew that something was wrong with herself and with Yuffie, Leon, and Cid. But she didn't know why she had to be last. It hurt, it felt wrong, just sitting on the stool and drinking lemonade that she would've so gladly shared with her friends. But they were gone.

"So I'm to be the last," she sipped her drink and winced against the sour taste. "But why?"

And, funnily enough, there was an answer. A whisper, as if from a wind. "Why not? You don't want to exist any longer?"

Ah. She was going insane after all. Aerith cupped her hands around the cup, frowning slightly. Disembodied voices were never really a good sign--no one was left in Traverse Town but the Shadows, who were forever mute. "I don't know. Are you the one after these...kidnappings?"

"I could be."

"Stop being cryptic."

"I'm not. I'm being compassionate."

And Aerith shivered. Whoever this mysterious being was, it was obviously in control of her world. She was thoroughly spooked. "Why...couldn't you have kept them here, then? Why do we have to leave? What's really going on?" So many things she wanted to ask. Why couldn't Leon and Yuffie and Cid remember the things she did? Why did they forget each other? How could their memories be tampered with that easily?

"That's not for you to know." Aerith's vision blurred at the edges, and she knew that she was fading as well. She gripped the edges of her stool, but somehow all feeling seemed to be fleeing from her arms. Traverse Town flickered.

"So I'm being erased, too." she muttered ruefully. "What are you? Some sort of puppet master? Are we just toys, then?"

"I left you for last. I thought you might've appreciated that." Aerith slid from her stool, watching with wide eyes as Traverse Town started disintegrating before her, as memories unraveled and were cast away. Her glass of lemonade was still half-full, she realized blearily.

"You were mistaken." She closed her eyes.

Naminè finished erasing the last sketch of the flower girl and sighed. Traverse Town was now nonexistant. At least, to Sora.

Aerith was just a memory, but for some reason her loss stung. Like lemonade would on fresh wounds. 


End file.
